Raven Wilson bowls her way to State

When students go to the athletic page on our school website, you do not find a schedule for bowling under winter sports schedules. To be honest, you would not have found a single thing about bowling on the athletics page until this year. Why is that? Senior Raven Wilson has made a name for herself in bowling by placing at the state championship round of bowling this past month; a first for any high school bowler at Lebanon High School.

Along with cheering, Wilson has been bowling at Lebanon High School since her freshman year, and has loved the experience she has gotten from the sport.

“My bowling season went fairly well! It was the first year we have had a girls’ team so I actually got to go up against all other girls instead of coed teams which was nice. It helped me prepare for state because it gave me a lot of competition because a couple of the girls I went against averaged about the same as me so it made me want to work harder to beat them,” Wilson commented when comparing this season to previous ones.

Wilson said the most exciting part about her journey to state was just being able to compete at that level and make it that far in the tournament. What many did not see was the nerve-wracking side of competing at the state level that Wilson faced.

“The most nerve-wracking part about state was the fear of messing up and taking over my game. If I made a bad shot, then I was afraid that was going to kill my game. I also was nervous about the fact that there were only 23 other girls there which meant less competition and it meant that all those girls were going to be tough competition,” said Wilson.

This is not just about bowling for Wilson though, as she knows in the long run bowling is just a game. Wilson does not plan on bowling at the collegiate level but will continue bowling in different leagues and for fun in the future.

“Bowling has ultimately taught me that it is really not about just competition. Yes, I did want to win all the time, but honestly, it was just a great experience to have fun and learn how to interact with new people,” concluded Wilson.